Revitalizing the historic Val Air Ballroom
For generations, the Val Air Ballroom’s iconic neon sign attracted crowds seeking an affordable night out. The West Des Moines venue operated as an iconic music destination for nearly 80 years before the building went up for sale in 2016 and the sign went dark. It then sat empty for six years before Sam Summers, a local music enthusiast who’d personally connected with its legacy, put together a plan for preservation.
Re-opening the historic Val Air Ballroom in early 2024 felt like a major milestone for Sam, who’s dedicated more than two decades toward growing the local live music scene. Along with being the founder and owner of First Fleet Concerts, which books over 200 shows across Iowa each year, he also co-owns the intimate music venue Wooly’s in Des Moines’ East Village and created the Hinterland Music Festival, among other entertainment investments, before adding ‘historic preservationist’ to his title.
“I’ve had a lot of important moments in here,” said Sam, who bought the Val Air Ballroom in 2022 and embarked on a $15 million historic preservation project to ensure its future. Sam took a date to a Dashboard Confessional concert here as a teen and kicked off his career by booking Fallout Boy at the Val Air in 2005.
“That was the biggest show I’d ever done,” Sam said. “This was when they were blowing up. I remember kind of tearing up at the side of the stage.”
He understood what the space meant to countless people who grew up attending performances here since it opened 1939, and what it could mean for boosting Iowa’s music scene in the future. Over the decades, artists from Frank Sinatra, B.B. King and Bob Dylan to The Beach Boys, Rob Zombie and Snoop Dogg have entertained crowds within the walls of the West Des Moines locale.
Today, Sam listens to what locals like and extends hospitality to touring artists, building valuable relationships with future arena headliners by taking good care of early-career musicians and encouraging them to return. As a result of Sam’s growing connections, the Val Air Ballroom continues to host big names like Black Pumas, Phantogram, Clutch, Dashboard Confessional and more.
Investing in Improvements
Though the journey to restore the venue was long, Sam knew it was a sound investment and convinced others of the same. After the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2022, several doors for revitalization were opened. It became eligible for $3.2 million in historic tax credits from the state of Iowa. Sam said those credits, plus $1 million from Destination Iowa funds and up to $1.18 million in property tax rebates from the city of West Des Moines, proved to banks that the project’s cultural value and economic impact made it worth saving.
Revitalizing the Val Air was much more than a nostalgic return to Sam’s roots. The success of the historic preservation project hinged on staying true to the building’s culturally significant past while ensuring it could accommodate the tech needs and expectations of touring acts well into the future. So, Sam worked with an architectural historian to determine what was possible.
“When [the historian] said that she thought we’d be able to raise [the side] stage, then I knew the project was viable,” Sam said.
A higher stage meant better production opportunities. It also required raising a portion of Val Air’s roof to rig lighting and sound systems – improvements that are key to attracting acts across genres. Since reopening in March, Grammy Award-winners like Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit and multiplatinum Violent Femmes have already taken the freshly reinforced stage. The smaller, original area where artists like Lawrence Welk and Waylon Jennings once played remains intact, while invisible improvements like a more robust HVAC system make the concert experience much more comfortable for fans.
Connecting to the Past
During the renovations, Sam realized his passion for music promotion echoes that of the venue’s original owner, Tom Archer, who envisioned the ballroom as a “poor man’s country club.”
“You need to have somebody that really cares about the local market and tries to bring shows in,” Sam said.
That was Tom Archer’s legacy, and Sam hopes it’s his, too. After poring over old photos and ephemera with the Archer family, Sam also plans to incorporate memorabilia and pay homage to the Val Air’s originator in the project’s next phase. He expects a basement-level restaurant with a supper club vibe to open by fall. Cozy booths for sipping cocktails and a chef-led menu will attract diners regardless of whether there’s a show going on upstairs. On the other side of the basement, a raw space will become a separate bar that specializes in cheap, ice-cold beers.
“With the kind of investment that we and the community put in, I keep thinking it has to last forever,” Sam said. “I can commit to the level of the things that we did in this place—the work in the basement and structural and the roof—because we built it to be able to last.”
